Questions and answers about beer on the construction site

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Are construction workers allowed to drink alcohol on the construction site?

There is no uniform legal regulation in Germany prohibiting alcohol consumption in the workplace. However, accident prevention ^regulations1 stipulate that employees must not endanger themselves and/or others at work by consuming addictive substances. Company managers can additionally stipulate a strict ban on alcohol during work hours and breaks in the employment contract or in a company agreement.

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How widespread are addictions in the skilled trades?

Addictive disJobs are present in all occupations, including the skilled trades. Studies from England, Finland, Sweden and the USA show that men in skilled trades in particular have a relatively high risk of alcohol-related illnesses and deaths^.2

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Where can Tradesmen and women get help for addiction?

Tradesmen can find help with a diagnosed or suspected addiction here, for example:

• Addiction and drugs hotline: 01806 313031 (€0.20/call from German landlines and mobile phones)
• Handwerker-Fonds Suchtkrankheit e.V. (Schleswig-Holstein)
• Free addiction counseling from the German Red Cross
• German Head Office for Addiction Issues e.V.

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Even though there is no uniform legal ^regulation3 prohibiting beer drinking on the construction site, there are regulations in Germany such as the accident prevention regulation^.4 This states that Tradesmen and craftswomen, by "consuming alcohol, [...] may not put themselves in a state through which they can endanger themselves or others". If they work drunk, employees lose their insurance coverage and can even be legally prosecuted.

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For their own protection, management should also not allow their employees to perform any job-related activities if they are noticeably under the influence of alcohol^.5

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Important: As an employer, you are responsible! So if you notice one or more of these symptoms, please do not look away:

• Alcohol odor
• Movement disJobs (for example, staggering)
• Speech difficulties (for example, slurring)

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Although there are no statistics on how many Tradesmen and women consume alcoholic beer at work, alcohol abuse has been studied in various occupational groups. As recently as 2022, a study from ^England6 showed that men between the ages of 40 and 69 in particular are exposed to special risks in the skilled trades construction industry. Research teams also from other countries such as Sweden, Finland and the USA found the following:

• There is a high proportion of heavy drinkers among craft workers.
• Craft workers have the greatest risk of alcohol-related illness, hospitalization, and death
• There are higher rates of alcohol abuse in construction than in many other industries.

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Against this background, the question of why is obvious. Why are Tradesmen in particular - not craftswomen - susceptible to alcohol-related health risks?

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Causes of alcohol abuse in the construction industry

The respective causes for alcohol abuse or an addiction disease are of course individual. Nevertheless, according to experts from the fields of psychology and medicine, there are some risk factors that naturally do not only apply to the construction industry. These include, among others^:7,8

• Family reasons
• Easy availability of alcohol
• Poverty
• Violence
• Stress
• Biological factors
• Depression, anxiety disJobs, burnout

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How to prevent alcohol consumption and abuse at work

Prevention helps! Everyone can make an active contribution to preventing a culture of alcohol consumption from developing on the construction site in the first place. Many measures can be implemented quite simply:

• Offer non-alcoholic beverages on the site
• Education about the dangers of alcohol consumption in the workplace
• Attend training courses on the subject
• Reduce workload in the long term

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However, a look at many modern companies shows that beer on the construction site is more of a cliché than a reality. The culture in the companies has changed considerably in this respect over the last few decades. The dominant topic in the skilled trades is certainly not the next beer, but digitization, for example.

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Instead of holding a beer bottle, tradesmen and women are more likely to be found on the construction site with their smartphones in hand. That's because it can be used to take photos of work progress, send updates to the office and record work hours. This works particularly easily and efficiently with the Meisterwerk app. The craftsman app improves organization and communication in the company by:

• The digital duty scheduling and time recording
• The exchange of information in real-time
• Job-related documentation with photos and PDFs

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This saves time and ensures that the skilled trades also arrive in the digital age of the 21st century.

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